Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Atlanta–Athens-Clarke County–Sandy Springs, GA-AL Combined Statistical Area (CSA) rose by 2.9 percent for the year ending September 2025, according to a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This increase was lower than the previous year’s annual gain of 4.8 percent.
Victoria G. Lee, Regional Commissioner, noted that “one year ago, Atlanta experienced an annual gain of 4.8 percent in compensation costs.” Nationally, compensation costs increased by 3.5 percent over the same period.
Within the Atlanta area, wages and salaries grew at a rate of 2.8 percent during this 12-month period. Nationwide, wages and salaries saw a higher rise of 3.6 percent.
Atlanta is one of fifteen metropolitan areas in the United States and one of five in the South region where locality compensation cost data are collected. In comparison with other large metropolitan areas, over-the-year percentage changes in compensation costs ranged from a high of 5.7 percent in Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale to a low of 2.1 percent in Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor as of September 2025.
In terms of wage and salary growth among these metro areas, Miami registered the largest increase at 5.9 percent while Washington-Baltimore-Arlington recorded the smallest at 1.9 percent.
The report also compares Atlanta’s figures with those from four other major southern metropolitan areas—Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Pasadena, Miami, and Washington—where annual advances ranged from 5.7 to 2.2 percent for compensation costs and from 5.9 to 1.9 percent for wages and salaries.
These local statistics are part of the national Employment Cost Index (ECI), which tracks quarterly changes in compensation free from employment shifts among different occupations and industries.
Additional ECI data are available online through resources such as industry breakdowns and summaries for civilian workers as well as state and regional information through dedicated pages on the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
The substate area data follow definitions set out by Office of Management and Budget Bulletin No. 23-01 issued on July 21, 2023.
The CSA includes counties across Georgia such as Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton and extends into Chambers County in Alabama.
Requests for accessible versions or further information can be directed to the Bureau using provided contact numbers or relay services.
